The Guardians of Sunfist Guide
This guide will walk you through the various elements that come into play when dealing with the Society, Grimswarm and Warcamps. This guide is made up of educated guess-work using countless amounts of data and is an ongoing project until all data can be 100% confirmed! :See also: Guardians of Sunfist! __TOC__ Introduction The Guardians of Sunfist is the third society to be added to GemStone IV. The society is much different than the Order of Voln or the Council of Light, as the task system is very similar to the Adventurer's Guild with a four milestone tasks at Ranks 5, 10, 15 and 20. The society seems to fit nicely with characters who have a decently balanced amount of mana and stamina, due to the fact that the benefits from the society draw from either your mana or stamina, or both. Joining To join, find one of the many recruiters and have them initiate their speech by waiting around in the room they are in. Eventually, they will direct you to Zul Logoth where you must make the trek to join! There is one recruiter in each town. The Trip to Zul Logoth Make your war to Zul Logoth, and from the Bawdy Bard Inn, head: '''SOUTHWEST, SOUTHEAST, EAST, SOUTH, SOUTH, EAST, NORTHEAST, NORTHEAST, NORTHEAST, NORTHWEST, GO ARCH, NORTH, NORTHWEST, WEST, NORTHEAST, NORTH, GO PORTCULLIS' This is the Guardians' Headquarters. Once inside, find the grandmaster and get inducted. The History of the Grimswarm and the Guardians To read more about the history, check out the Guardians of Sunfist page that goes into some of the overview that each superintendent explains as well as a document by GM Scribes. The Journey to Mastery The Guardians of Sunfist is composed of 20 ranks, however the real milestones are entering ranks 5, 10, 15 and 20. In order to gain a rank, you must earn the recognition points needed by killing Grimswarm or their Hated Enemies of the society. Each creature is worth 50 points, plus or minus 5 for every level they are compared to you. The highest amount of points you can receive off any one creature is 100 (10+ levels more than you). The lowest amount of point you can receive off any one creature is 1 (10+ levels under you). The concept is quite simple; eliminate them all to advance. At every milestone, you will always need to return to Zul Logoth's headquarters. Tasks The Sunfist outposts each have a Taskmaster NPC that can give tasks. This is system works much like the Adventurer's Guild system where you ASK NPC about TASK. Each task wracks up a set number of recognition/prestige points. The tasks you can receive are as follows: *Locate a Warcamp. *Cull type Grimswarm at Location. *Retrieve item from supply chest (under lock and key). *Retrieve banner from flagpole. *Rescue official from captive's hut. *Cull number of Grimswarm in a warcamp (any type). *Kill the warchief. *Kill the shaman. *RAZE a warcamp (not gained till after rank 15). Points and Exp Chart Not confirmed, however, if you were ADD'd to a task, rewards are 2/3 the value! Lock and Key In order to complete the tasks that have you retrieve an item under lock and key, you must either find a crude bone key when LOOT'''ing the Grimswarm '''in a warcamp or pop/pick the box in the supply hut yourself! To open the supply hut chest using a key, hold it in either hand and UNLOCK CHEST. Failing a Task Currently, there is only one task you can out right fail in the Guardians of Sunfist. That is the rescuing of the official. If the official dies on the way back, by any means, you will receive the following message: :You have failed in your task and should report back to the nearest society outpost. When you have a failed task active, you will not be able to use any sigils! Going back to the Taskmaster NPC and reporting about your task will have your sigils restored. If you try to use a sigil while you have a failed task, you will receive the following message: :The weight of your recent failure in your task weighs heavily upon you. You may not activate a sigil until you report back on your failure. While there isn't a way to fail other tasks, at this time, you can potentially fail other tasks. Losing the item that you are tasked to get is a way to fail a task, where you will need to REMOVE the task. And losing track of where the official went is another way to potentially "fail" your task. Rank Five After acquiring the amount of point to advance to rank five, you will be tasked for your first mission. You must visit the superintendent of every outpost. Simply head to each outpost and speak with them. Once they have finished their speech, you move onto the next outpost until you are complete. Outposts *Icemule Trace - (Outside town) From South Gate: e e e e ne go path *River's Rest - (Grassland Path) - From drawbridge: e ne e s e se go gate *Solhaven - (the Outlands) - From Hangman's Bridge: East until you can't anymore, ne e e go building *Sylvarraend/Ta'Illistim - (Sylvarraend, Foehn Var) - next to the herb shop *Ta'Vaalor - (Fearling Pass) - From Amaranth Gate: nw nw go bridge nw nw n nw n nw go crev n n nw nw n go trail u u *Teras Isle - (Basalt Flats) - From gate: n n nw go road w w go road nw ne ne w ne ne ne go bridge sw go tunnel *Wehnimer's Landing - (Lower Dragonsclaw) From North Gate: sw s w sw sw s w w u sw nw go trail u SEARCH go cleft u go bridge w Rank Ten Once you reach the points needed for rank 10, you will be tested again, for your second mission. To go toe-to-toe with a challenging Grimswarm in the arena. This take can be quite difficult for some. In order to succeed, you must either kill the Grimswarm you are challenged with or last five minutes in the arena. You can also leave at any time, but if you do, you must wait 15 minutes to try again, and face a new Grimswarm. Some tips to this task are to either keep going into the arena until you can handle the Grimswarm presented to you. Most squares and semis choose to go against the rogue type Grimswarm (scouts, pillagers, skirmishers, etc), as they usually don't carry heavy weapons and don't cast. However, they are usually faster and are armed with many disabling CMANs, which makes them not such a good choice for pures. AT higher levels, pures in the arena can be the most difficult, as they cast major elemental wave and are armed with many, many spells... Doing TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DAMAGE! So, in short, picking your battle is the most important thing here. Go in, armed to the teeth in spells, carry a few ruby amulets and haste imbeds... And most importantly, know your skills. If you are clear on your weaknesses and strengths, this task can be quite simple. Rank Fifteen Rank 15's mission is quite simple. You need to have RAZE'd five warcamps. You will need to raze at least one at rank 15 so it triggers the mission complete, so the best thing to do is to raze 4 ahead of time, and raze your final camp after you have received the mission for rank 15. A quick note, the messaging states to raze a large warcamp, however, there isn't a difference in a camp with 5 Grimswarm or 500. All you need is to hit five Grimswarm to get credit toward your raze task, so don't feel you have to take on a full warcamp for this task. Rank Twenty In order to keep game integrity, this guide will not go into details on rank 20. It is quite unique in nature and should remain a true puzzle, for now! The Grimswarm :See also: GoS Hated Enemies. The Grimswarm are a fierce group of orcs, trolls and giants that have joined forced through some form of a pact to destroy civilization and claim Elanthia as their own. They are a nomadic tribal force that have sprung up through out the known parts of Elanthia and aren't leaving anytime soon! More can be read about the Grimsarm here. Grimswarm Races The Grimswarm are made up of three races, orcs, trolls and giants. Each have their pros and cons, so plan accordingly! Orcs Orcs are your most perceptive of the Grimswarm. A 2x hide build with 5th rank in shadow mastery has moderate coverage when hiding. They are the shortest race of the three creature types, allowing an average height race the ability to aim anywhere on the body with any range of weaponry. They tend to have the lowest blood/health count. Trolls Trolls are the mid-range Grimswarm type. They aren't as perceptive as orcs, but a 2x hide build with 5th rank in shadow mastery can still run into trouble being spotted, but a 3x build (or ranger equiv.) can prove to have little difficulty with staying hidden. They are taller, giving an average height race difficulty hitting head/eye with a small weapon. They have the natural ability to heal wounds, like all trolls, and seem to gain a large amount of health "per round" which in turn makes "bleeding out" a troll grimswarm much more difficult. They have the fire weakness that does double damage and prevents them to heal wounds that were dealt by fire, making trolls a big target to fire based professions, such as a wizard. Most trolls seem to have a lower crit padding level than orcs or giants, given Droit's testing with Spike Thorn (616). Trolls may or may not have more blood/health than orcs. It is difficult to tell with their healing ability. Giants Giants are your least perceptive of the Grimswarm. A 2x hide build with 5th rank shadow mastery can stay hidden in front of a non-guard Grimswarm quite easily. They are your tallest Grimswarm that cause your average height race to only be able to hit back or legs when AIMing. They have the inherited giant ability to stomp, causing a room knock-down effect, and will stomp while you are hidden. They have the highest blood/health count causing them to be less-than-favorable Grimswarm type for people that can't deal massive damage or ambush for a quick kill. Warcamps In the struggle against the Grimswarm, a Guardians of Sunfist member will eventually need to experience a warcamp. Warcamps are spread out over Elanthia and can be found in just about any outdoor room. However, warcamps tend to be in regions where hated enemies are. Due to the shroud, warcamps are mysteriously hidden and can only be found by a Guardians of Sunfist member via use of the Sigil of Locate. Using Sigil of Location once will form a patch of air that you can pass through, however, using the sigil of location twice will form a shimmering path that will last longer than the patch of air. Anyone can pass through the pathway, it isn't restricted to GoS only. Warcamp Only Grimswarm Professions :See also: Types of Grimswarm, Grimswarm Spawn Frequencies and Grimswarm Abilities. Guards Guards are the only thing within a warcamp when you first enter a fresh camp and are a very unique type of Grimswarm. No matter what the race of the Grimswarm, a 3x hide build (though I find a ranger equiv. with 617 up can pull it off) is pretty difficult to stay hidden in front of a Grimswarm Guard. Once a guard spots you, it will sound an alarm, causing the warcamp to be active and have other profession types to spawn. If you leave the camp for approximately 10-15 minutes, the alarm will reset. With the new ARMOR system, a person in robes (or soft leathers) with 3x hiding, ARMOR STEALTH at 5th rank and 5th rank in shadow mastery can cause some serious damage to breaking up the guard's massive perception levels. Warchiefs A unique Grimswarm spawn that can only appear if you or the leader of your group is tasked with eliminating a warchief. They are always located in their hut, which is located 4 north of the entrance. If you do not set off the alarm for the warcamp, the warchief will be unprotected and by himself. If you do set off the alarm, the warchief will be accompanied by several Grimswarm bodyguards or other "grizzled" Grimswarm professions. The warchief always spawns higher than your level and is a much greater challenge than most Grimswarm. He is always a warrior type, armed with several CMAN attacks, the no stun ability and the combat mobility cman (aka auto stand). They seems to have a higher level of crit padding. Shamans Another unique Grimswarm that can only appear if you or the leader of your group is tasked with eliminating a shaman. They are always located in their hut, which is located 5 north of the entrance. If you do not set off the alarm for the warcamp, the shaman will be unprotected and by himself. They also appear to be less spelled up, but this is just speculation. If you do set off the alarm, the shaman will be accompanied by several Grimswarm bodyguards or other "grizzled" Grimswarm professions. The shaman always spawns higher than your level is a much greater challenge than most Grimswarm. They are always a pure type. They also carry the ability to avoid being stunned. They, too, have a higher level of crit padding, but no where near as thick as a warrior-type. The Shroud The shroud is the protective magic that causes each warcamp to be hidden throughout Elanthia. The shroud also can be disrupted causing a serious backlash in effects by casting Area of Effect (AoE) spells. According to the taskmaster at any outpost, the shroud is controlled by the shaman. While there is no way to actually disabling the shroud, there are ways to deal with it much easier. The first two rooms in a warcamp have the highest sensitivity and are the easiest to disturb the shroud. When using AoE spells, it is best to head to the back of a warcamp to avoid setting off the shroud as fast. No area inside a camp is safe from the shroud and it is wise to pay close attention when using AoE spells. Shroud Messaging The following messages are the two warning signs that the shroud is about to be set off: :Distorted ripples begin to appear across the mystical shroud surrounding this area! :The ripples in the mystical shroud surrounding the area become more prominent! The first is a caution message that allows you to know that the shroud is starting to become disturbed that you should use AoE spells at your own risk. The second messaging means that shroud is at its breaking point and anything cast that is an AoE spell at that point will cause the shroud to disrupt. The status ailments that can happen due to the shroud's disruption are: * Dispel * Stun * Damage * Loss of Mana When entering a new room, you may encounter the message as seen below. This means that the room you are currently in has had the shroud disrupted as well. Adjacent rooms tend to be effected by AoE spells, so again, take extra precautions. :You notice ominous ripples undulating across the mystical shroud surrounding this area The messaging seen below is the "all clear" message that the shroud is no longer disrupted and that AoE spells can, once again, be used...until you repeat the process. :The ripples in the mystical shroud surrounding this area fade away. Highlighting those messages can prove to be very helpful in paying attention to the camp's shroud. Attaching a sound file also might be a good idea. Spells that Disrupt the Shroud :Note: This list is a work in progress! Certain AoE spells are weighted differently when counting towards disrupting the shroud. You will notice that some spells just disturb the shroud more rapidly. The spells that are known to disrupt the shroud are: * Spirit Fog (106) * Web (118) (Area of Effect Only) * Searing Light (135) * Mass Interference (217) * Divine Wrath (319) * Elemental Wave (410) * Mana Focus (418) * Major Elemental Wave (435) * Cone of Lightning (518) * Breeze (612) * Nature's Fury (635) * Quake (709) * Tremors (909) * Call Wind (912) * Song of Depression (1015) * Song of Noise (1017) * Song of Power (1018) * Song of Sonic Disruption (1030) * Sympathy (1120) * Judgment (1630) The Flagpole The flagpole is used for a task that is given by the Taskmaster NPCs to retrieve a banner that is displayed high above. You have two options at remove the banner from the flagpole. You can either CLIMB the flagpole or SHAKE the flagpole. Climbing requires both hands to be free, so this can be potentially dangerous if the warcamp is swarmed. It also requires a fair deal of climbing skill to easily handle the flagpole. Shaking the flagpole allows you to hold your ground in defensive, but can create enormous amounts of roundtime. So, choose wisely! The flagpole cannot be used if you do not have a current task to retrieve a banner. Captive's Hut The captive's hut will hold an official if the person who enters the hut has a current rescue task. In order to get inside the captive's hut, you must OPEN HUT, twice, and then head on inside. Be warned, opening the hut will cause you to go into offensive stance. Once inside, TELL OFFICIAL to FOLLOW and quickly head back to the nearest outpost. You will need to walk back, and no form of magical transportation will work. If the camp you're in is currently swarmed with Grimswarm, it may be a wise idea to clear the way before rescuing your official! Getting the official killed will result in a loss of powers! Supply Chest The supply chest will be the spot to check when tasked for anything "under lock and key." It also will contain a box for roughly every 20 Grimswarm you have the killing blow. This count seems to vary for groups, but nothing confirmed can be said. In order to open the chest, you must either find the key, which is a random drop from the Grimswarm, or try to open it manually. The box can be picked or popped. Setting off the trap that the box can sometimes have a unique "soulstone" that causes the entire room to be stunned, creature and player (though Grimswam can shake a stun, so be careful). If you haven't set the alarm off, but set off the trap, it will also set off the alarm. The alarm resets after approximately 10-15 minutes of leaving the camp. Mess Tent The mess tent is where one will end up if they die in a warcamp. The Grimswarm will quickly drag the body into the tent and begin to feast upon the corpse creating just about ever rank 3 wound one can get, over the course of 3-5 minutes. Once the Grimswarm has finished consuming the corpse, the body is ejected from the camp and placed outside the shimmering path. Finishing a Warcamp Once you have killed all the Grimswarm inside a camp and have no more left in there (this can be confimed with SIGIL OF LOCATION), it is time to RAZE the camp. Make sure you clear out any area you want to before you type RAZE (such as the supply chest or the captive's hut) as once the camp is on fire, it will soon explode. If you are inside the camp when it finally burns to the ground, you will be killed. Entering a New Warcamp Before Completing the Old One Currently, if you enter a new warcamp before finishing your old one, you will lose all data associated with the old camp. Meaning, kill count, supply chest box count and raze count all get reset to zero for that camp if you enter a new one. To prevent accidentally locating a different camp in an area congested with warcamps, highlighting some of the room description might help! The Sigils In the Guardians of Sunfist, your powers gained by going through the ranks are in the form of sigils. Typing SOCIETY or SIGIL in game will give you a list of your current known sigils. Below are the list of sigils you will gain. Click each sigil to read more details! * Rank 1 Sigil of Recognition - Detects members and/or foes of the Guardians of Sunfist, when in the same room. * Rank 2 Sigil of Location - Detects foes of the Guardians of Sunfist, that are nearby as well as warcamp's in the area and/or their paths. * Rank 3 Sigil of Contact - Activates the ESP (thoughtnet/amunet) network. * Rank 4 Sigil of Resolve - Increases climbing, swimming, and survival skills for 90 seconds equal to half current rank. * Rank 5 Sigil of Minor Bane - Adds +5 AS and grants heavy damage weighting to melee, ranged and bolt attacks for 1 minute. * Rank 6 Sigil of Bandages - Allows an individual to attack without breaking any applied bandages for 3 minutes. * Rank 7 Sigil of Defense - Increases +1 DS per rank for 5 minutes. * Rank 8 Sigil of Offense - Increases +1 AS per rank for 5 minutes. * Rank 9 Sigil of Distraction - Decreases enemies' chances to evade, parry, and block. * Rank 10 Sigil of Minor Protection - Adds +5 DS and grants heavy damage padding for 1 minute. Can be stacked to have a duration of up to 3 minutes. * Rank 11 Sigil of Focus - Increases +1 TD per rank for 1 minute. Can be stacked to have a duration of up to 3 minutes. * Rank 12 Sigil of Intimidation - Decreases enemies' AS/DS by 20. * Rank 13 Sigil of Mending - Increases HP recovery by 15 and allows all healing herbs to be eaten in 3 seconds for 10 minutes. * Rank 14 Sigil of Concentration - Increases mana recovery by +5 for 10 minutes. * Rank 15 Sigil of Major Bane - Adds +10 AS and grants heavy crit weighting to melee, ranged and bolt attacks for 1 minute. * Rank 16 Sigil of Determination - Ignores penalties while performing tasks when a character has injuries. * Rank 17 Sigil of Health - Instantly recover 15 HP or half of your lost HP, whichever is greater. * Rank 18 Sigil of Power - Convert 50 stamina to 25 mana. * Rank 19 Sigil of Major Protection - Adds +10 DS and grants heavy crit padding for 1 minute. Can be stacked to have a duration of up to 3 minutes. * Rank 20 Sigil of Escape - Teleports you to a safe location. The emergency version of this sigil can be used while stunned, bound, in RT, etc. GoS and Platinum The Guardians of Sunfist has several difference in Platinum, than it does in Prime. This section of the guide will cover the differences, offer Platinum-oriented tips and also tackle the hardships involved with the GoS in a small community. Platinum Differences Here is a listing of difference from Platinum warcamps to Prime. * Warcamps only have 250 Grimswarm at max. * The spawn rate inside a warcamp is slower. * Camps have a slower spawn rate to show up in a LOCATION. * Because of the lower quanity of Grimswarm in a camp, the supply chest only produces 12 boxes, as opposed to 25 in a full camp. Droppage in Warcamps Due to the likely hood of losing your gear forever, droppage in a warcamp is turned off for the items in your hands. When you are ejected from the warcamp, your items should still be in your hands if you need to log off. However, decaying in a warcamp or outside of a warcamp will still result in the loss of all items. Officials and the Portals Much like the Adv. Guild, the officials cannot take advantage of using the portal system to bring them back to an outpost. Platinum Roll Call These two subsections below are intended to make some of the more complicated issues with the Guardians of Sunfist and a smaller population. Members Roster Due to the nature of the Guardians of Sunfist being very group-oriented, we have tried to maintain a list of members. This list obviously can get outdated fast, but use it as a stepping stone! If you see information that can be updated, by all means, do so! Warcamping 101 Another factor in our small community is that we can track where we work on warcamps to avoid "poaching", which crops up from time to time. Much like the roster system, this can be outdated fast, but it can be used to help know where camps aren't being dealt with as much as other areas. Category:Guardians of Sunfist Category:Guides Category:Platinum Guides